The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly was the eleventh biennial Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It convened in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from August 17–23, 2009. The Churchwide Assembly is the 'highest legislative authority' of the ELCA.
At the time of the Assembly, the ELCA consisted of nearly 4.6 million members organized into nearly 11,000 congregations. The Assembly consisted of 1,045 voting members and was chaired by The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA from 2001 to 2013. David Swartling served as Secretary of the ELCA from 2007 to 2013.Minutes of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, p. 7.
The 2009 Assembly was dominated by debate on the proposed Social Statement, and its accompanying Recommendations for Ministry Policies. The Statement allowed for differing understandings of same-gender sexual relationships within the ELCA. The Recommendations proposed the development of a process in which congregations, synods, and churchwide units that chose to do so could call pastors and other officially recognized church leaders who were in publicly accountable same-gender lifelong monogamous relationships.
The assembly's agenda also included a proposed agreement of full communion between the ELCA and the United Methodist Church, the UMC's first such agreement, along with other business matters, including: the passage of the ELCA Churchwide organization's budget, elections of officers and committee members, reports from Churchwide units and greetings from ecumenical partners.
Nevertheless, "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust" is the legacy of the 2009 Assembly. Its eventual adoption, with its recommendations, opened the way for people in same-sex relationships to serve as pastors and other rostered leaders in the ELCA. After its adoption, many congregations and pastors who believed that such relationships were contrary to Holy Scripture, the tradition of the Church, and the Lutheran Confessions left the ELCA. The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly reshaped American Lutheranism.
Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust
Process leading to the Social Statement
The conservative Judeo-Christian understanding is that sexual relationships between people of the same sex are not part of God's intention for humanity and are an expression of sinful human desire The Biblical texts which are most commonly interpreted as proscribing homosexual activity are and . Conservative Jews and Christians see there being a divine intention for sexual intimacy between a man and a woman in and .
Debates about human sexuality, specifically the legitimacy of homosexual sexual relationships for Christians, had been on the ELCA's agenda for almost two decades. 1990's 'Vision and Expectations,' the standards for ELCA pastors, stated 'Pastors who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.'Quoted in SoulForce's Fact Sheet under the heading 'The ELCA's policy of discrimination:' http://www.soulforce.org/article/226 This statement reaffirmed the teaching statements of two of the predecessor bodies of the ELCA, the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church.
In 1993, a draft Social Statement, "The Church and Human Sexuality: A Lutheran Perspective," which took a permissive view on same-sex relationships, was leaked to the press, resulting in many parishioners being upset with what was misunderstood as new ELCA policy and was withdrawn. In 1996, the ELCA Church Council adopted "Sexuality: Some Common Convictions," which articulated shared understandings of ELCA Lutherans regarding human sexuality.
The issue continued to simmer while full-communion agreements with the Presbyterian Church USA, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and Episcopal Church (United States) were debated and adopted in 1997 and 1999. As a response to the 1999 adoption of full communion with the ECUSA, a congregationally centered organization called Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) was formed in 2001 for congregations that did not agree with the decision.
Groups such as Lutherans Concerned/North America continued to advocate for full inclusion of LGBT persons in the life of the ELCA. In 2003, the Episcopal Church (United States) ordained an openly gay man in a same-sex relationship, the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire.
By a 581–386 vote, the 2001 Churchwide Assembly acted "to initiate a process in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to develop a social statement on human sexuality."Minutes of the ELCA 2001 Churchwide Assembly, p. 372. Over the next two years, a Task Force on Human Sexuality developed resources for study in the ELCA. Over 28,000 responses were received to the study documents,Minutes of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, p. 166. The Task Force put forth three recommendations to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly. The third recommendation would have retained the current ministry standards 'on the books,' but allowed congregations the discretion to call leaders in same-sex relationships 'for the sake of mission.' This recommendation of the Task Force, which would have required a two-thirds majority to pass, failed at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, 490–503.Minutes of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, p. 336. A renewal group, Lutheran CORE, organized to advocate defeat of the recommendations.
At the 2007 Churchwide Assembly, many memorials from ELCA synods urged the Assembly to open the way for LGBT persons to serve as leaders in the ELCA. These memorials were debated but ultimately defeated. However, the Assembly adopted a resolution for the Task Force to make specific recommendations regarding ministry standards to go with the 2009 Social Statement, and also adopted a resolution to encourage restraint in discipline of those congregations and pastors who were not abiding by the ministry standards.Minutes of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, p. 168. These resolutions set the stage for change at the 2009 Assembly.
Social Statement In the ELCA, Social Statements "are teaching documents that assist members in their thinking about social issues. They are meant to aid in communal and individual moral formation and deliberation. Social statements also set policy for this church and guide its advocacy and work in the public arena."
In 2008, the Task Force on Human Sexuality released a draft of "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust." As eventually adopted, the Statement claims a 'distinctly Lutheran approach,' building on Lutheran principles of justification by grace and Christian freedom to serve the neighbor. It emphasizes that central to human vocation, in relation to human sexuality, is the building and protection of trust in relationships. It affirmed that human beings are called to be trustworthy in the exercise of human sexuality and to build social institutions and practices in which trust and trustworthy relationships can thrive.
Regarding marriage, the adopted Statement recognizes that 'The historic Christian tradition and the Lutheran Confessions have recognized marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman.'Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, p. 15. Nonetheless, the statement continues, "Recognizing that this conclusion differs from the historic Christian tradition and the Lutheran Confessions, some people, though not all, in this church and within the larger Christian community, conclude that marriage is also the appropriate term to use in describing similar benefits, protection, and support for same-gender couples entering into lifelong, monogamous relationships. They believe that such accountable relationships also provide the necessary foundation that supports trust and familial and community thriving."Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, p. 18.
Recognizing the lack of consensus within the ELCA, the Statement opens the way for congregations to publicly recognize same-sex relationships and LGBT persons to serve as pastors and other leaders by appealing to a theological concept of 'bound conscience'. The concept recalls Martin Luther's statement at the Diet of Worms: 'it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.' The Statement recognizes that members of the ELCA are bound by conscience to differing understandings of the legitimacy and desirability of same-sex sexual relationships in Christian life. Those different understandings may be lived out within the Church, and the differing opinions need not be church-dividing. Instead of having a definitive teaching regarding homosexual practice, the ELCA recognizes a varied but limited range of opinions on the matter, and leaves the decision to Christian freedom and the individual Christian, with all members of the ELCA respecting the other's bound consciences."Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust," p. 19-20.
The Ministry Recommendations appealed to the bound consciences of believers with regard to same-sex relationships. Congregations, synods, and churchwide units that chose to do so would be permitted to recognize and celebrate such relationships and call leaders either in such relationships or seeking such relationships. Persons or congregations would also be free to understand same-sex activity as sinful, to refuse to bless them, and to refuse to call leaders in same-sex relationships.
Two dissenting positions were attached to the Statement and Recommendations.Dissenting positions begin on page 15, http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/01/13_helmsm_elca/elcareport.pdf Dissenting Position One urged retention of the existing ministry standards proscribing homosexual practice.The dissenting positions themselves seem to have disappeared from the Web: this article, 'The Dissenters Speak,' identifies the authors and position of Dissenting Position One. http://www.lutheranforum.org/sexuality/the-dissenters-speak Dissenting Position Two argued for a more unequivocal statement of full inclusion for LGBT persons in the life of the ELCA.As quoted in 'Thank You But No Thank You,' Dissenting Position Two argued for "full parity for all rostering and call decisions of the ELCA concerning people who are in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships." http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/June-2009/Thank-You-but-No-Thank-You.aspx
In the months and weeks leading to the Assembly, the Statement and Recommendations were discussed and debated by theologians, seminary professors, pastors, ethicists, and advocacy groups, and debated in Synod Assemblies.See, for example, "An Open Letter to the Voting Members of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly," http://lutherancore.org/papers/open-ltr-2009.shtml , and 'A Letter from the Faculty of LSTC (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)." http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/July-2009/A-Letter-from-the-Faculty-of-LSTC.aspx The July 2009 online issue of Journal of Lutheran Ethics was devoted to discussion of the Ministry Policies.
Debate and Adoption of Statement and Recommendations
The Assembly opened on the evening of Monday, August 17, with a strong media presence. Advocacy groups from all over the nation were present, including Soulforce and representatives from the Westboro Baptist Church. Lutheran CORE and Goodsoil, a group of Lutherans Concerned/North America, represented the two key ELCA advocacy groups.